Dan Trachtenberg took Predator fans way back with Prey. The film took place in 1719, as it followed a young Comanche woman’s battle with the iconic movie monster. Now he’s returning to the franchise with an installment set in the future. The very far future. So far into the future, in fact Tracthenberg says no one will have to worry about doing any “homework” ahead of Predator: Badlands despite its Alien connections. He said intentionally set his film that far ahead specifically to avoid any possible timeline issues.
Trachtenberg recently sat down with IGN to discuss his upcoming movie starring Elle Fanning. Predator: Badlands will take place on a “deadly remote planet” where “a young Predator outcast” will find an ally who connects to the Alien franchise. Yet none of us have to worry about how any recent Alien installments might factor into Predator: Badlands. Trachtenberg made sure his film take places in the future so it doesn’t create any kind of timeline issues.
“There’s a lot going on while we were making this movie. Romulus was not yet out, and I hadn’t seen it yet. And Alien Earth, I was aware of happening but not sure where that was gonna end up,” he said. “So we decided to set ourselves well into the future. So all the stuff that has happened would have happened before our movie.”
In addition to “not trying to squeeze” his film into the established continuity, he also said he wanted to make seeing his movie easier. Trachtenberg said they were “cognizant” that with so many films and TV shows connected to both franchises, he wanted to make sure viewers didn’t feel like they had to see everything that came before Predator: Badlands.
Thank you, Dan. Both as fans and as people whose job it is to make sense of that often convoluted timeline stuff. (Which we’re great at!) It’s nice to know the only timeline we have to worry about is the film’s release date of November 7.